How to Play

Through the Desert

2-5 players 45-45 min 7.2 Board Game Geek Rating

In this strategic tile-laying game, players control nomadic tribes competing for desert dominance. Using plastic camels, you build snaking caravan routes to claim oases and territory while blocking opponents' expansion. Victory comes through multiple scoring paths: longest caravans, oasis control, or territorial dominance. Strategic placement is crucial to avoid being cut off from valuable resources.

Published 1998

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place the board

Set the board either Mountain or River side up; the River side has additional scoring rules

Restrict play area

At 2-3 players, the shaded area is not used

Create the supply

Place the 5pt Tokens, leaderless Camels, and Largest Caravan Tokens in a supply

Adjust for player count

At 2 players remove 8 Camels of each colour (22 per player); at 3 players remove 4 Camels of each colour (26 per player)

Place Watering Hole Tokens on Oases

At 2-3 players choose 1 random Oases hex, at 4-5 players choose 2 random Oases hexes, and place a random Watering Hole Token on each

Place Oasis Markers

Put an Oasis Marker on each remaining Oasis hex

Place Watering Hole Tokens

Place a random Watering Hole Token on each Watering Hole Hex, matching the colour facing up to the map you're using

Take player components

Each player takes a Leader Colour Token and the 5 Leaders with a rider of that colour

Adjust leaders for 5 players

Each player uses only 4 Leaders and returns a different colour leader to the box

Determine first player

The last player to take a drink of water is the First Player

Place leaders in turn order

Starting with the First Player and proceeding clockwise, each player places one Leader until all leaders are placed

Follow placement restrictions

Leaders must be placed on hexes not adjacent to an Oasis or another Leader

Avoid occupied hexes

Leaders cannot be placed on hexes containing any Token, Marker, Mountain, or Leader

Diversify first leader colours

The first leader each player places must be of a different colour than all previous leaders, if possible

Establish caravans

Each player will have one connected caravan of each colour, with the leader as the starting point and its rider colour showing ownership

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Place 2 Camels

During their turn, each player must place exactly 2 Camels

First turn exception

The first 2 players place only 1 Camel on their first turn; in a 2-player game, only the 1st player has this restriction

Connect to your caravan

Each Camel must be placed on a hex adjacent to the player's caravan of the same colour

Avoid opponent caravans

Camels cannot be placed adjacent to any other player's caravan of that colour

Respect blocked spaces

Camels cannot be placed on hexes containing an Oasis Marker, Mountain, Leader, or other Camel

Allow special placements

Camels may be placed on Watering Holes and Watering Hole Tokens, adjacent to a Caravan of a different colour, and the Caravan may fork

Choose camel colours freely

The two Camels placed may be the same colour or different

Collect Watering Hole Tokens

If placed on a Watering Hole Token, the player takes that token

Score Oasis connections

If placed adjacent to an Oasis Marker that the player didn't already have a Camel of that colour adjacent to, take a 5pt token

Score river crossings (River Board only)

If placed so that the Caravan crosses the river for the first time, take a 5pt token

Enclose areas

A group of hexes is enclosed if surrounded by Camels of a single caravan and/or the map edge, containing no Leaders or Camels

Score enclosed areas

Within the enclosed area, take each Watering Hole Token and score 5pts for each Oases Marker that the surrounding Caravan hadn't already scored

Note enclosed hexes

At the end of the game, score 1pt for each empty hex in the enclosure

End game if stuck

If a player cannot place a camel, the game ends

Enclosed hexes are blocked

A Camel cannot be placed on an enclosed hex

Leaders are Camels

Leaders count as Camels for all rules

Hide token values (optional)

When scoring a Watering Hole Token, place it facedown or underneath your Leader Colour Token to conceal its value

Winning

How to claim victory.

Trigger game end

When the last camel of a colour is placed, that player finishes their turn and the game ends; if they had not yet placed a second camel, they may do so

Score largest caravans

For each colour, the player with the largest Caravan of that colour scores 10pts; if tied, tied players score 5pts each

Score enclosures

Each empty hex in an enclosure scores the player whose Caravan surrounds it 1pt; Oasis Markers and Mountains do not count, but Watering Hole hexes do count

Determine the winner

The player with the most total points wins